Effect of Shockley-Read-Hall recombination on the static and dynamical characteristics of epitaxial quantum-dot lasers on silicon

Abstract

We semianalytically and numerically investigate the static and dynamical characteristics of quantum-dot (QD) lasers directly grown on silicon by considering the Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination. The static characteristics are studied through small-signal analysis, including the ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{H}$ factor, damping factor, and modulation dynamics. In addition, the feedback dynamics are analyzed through improved corpuscular rate equations based on the classical Lang-Kobayashi (LK) model with time series, bifurcation diagrams, and phase portraits. We find that a smaller ${\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{H}$ factor but larger damping factor are obtained by decreasing the nonradiative recombination lifetime. On top of that, in both the short- and long-external-cavity regimes, any decrease of the SRH recombination lifetime obliterates significantly chaotic regions and shifts the first Hopf bifurcation point to higher feedback values. Overall, this work provides insights into the understanding of QD laser physics, hence highlighting the influence of the SRH lifetime on the reflection sensitivity of epitaxial QD lasers on silicon. These results are qualitatively consistent with recent experiments and are therefore helpful for designing feedback-resistant lasers for future photonic integrated circuits operating without optical isolation.